Between Text and Artifact: Integrating Archaeology in Biblical Studies Teaching (Archaeology and Biblical Studies)

76 BI:.TWEENTEXTANDARTrFACr

Americanbiblicalarchaeologistshad hadtheiroppol1unity,theBritishhad
theirs(thoughultimatelyitlookeda lotliketheAmericans),butIsraelis,
who were doingthe bulkofthe fieldwork, had notyet publisheda
"modern"syntheticoverviewofthearchaeologyoftheirowncountry.This
isanimpol1antcross-currentinarchaeologythatunderscoresthepotential
ofarchaeologicalc1at<landitsinterpretationtoservea varietyofpolitical,
religiolls,nationalistic,andelhno-hisloricalaims.Thisiswhy,forinstance,
intheGISeofthesouthernLevanttheuseofdifferentnamesfortheregion
canbesorevealing.WhereasAlbrightandKenyonreferredtothesouthern
LevantaseitherPalestineortheHolyLand,Aharoniusedtheterm"Land
ofIsrael"(translatedfromtheHebreweretzyisrael),a terminvokingboth
biblicalandmodernconnotations)2
Aharonihada greatdealofinterestin historical geography,andin
manyrespectsthisvolumeonarchaeologywasa follow-uptohisearlier
volume,1beLandoftheBible:AHistodcalGeography.33Thisvolumewas
a straightforwardhistoricalgeographyofbiblicalIsraelandwasa signifi-
cantcontribution 10 thefieldofbiblicalstudies.Withoutstrayingtoofar
from itsintended purposeofprovidinga detailed hislOricalgeography
basedonthebiblicaltexts,itsliberaladmixtureofenvironmentalstudies,
hiStory,andarchaeologymadeit innovativeandveryuseful. However,
becauseitwasstrictlya historicalgeography,itavoidedthekindoftension
betweenbiblical narrativesandarchaeologicaldatacommonlyfoundin
biblicalarchaeologyhandbooks.
Like Kenyon, Aharoni alsotoyed with chronological terminology,
WhileKenyondevelopednewterm.sthatweremeanttomoreappropri-
atelydescribeperiodsjustcomingintofocus,Aharoniseemedmoreintenl
on imbuingchronologywithethno-hislory, as opposedto technology.
Thushereplaced~Bronze"with"Canaanite" and"Iron" with"Israelite."
Thistypeofterminologyisextremelyproblematicforanumberofreasons,
nottheleastofwhichis thatit assumestheprimacyofsingularethnic
identitiesasmeaningfuldesignatorsofchronologicalperiods.Thankfully,
thisterminologynevergainedanytrdctioninthefield.

Wright.aswdJashowIsraeliarch;u..."OIO/.,'Ydealswiththebibliciltextsandtheimpaaofproces-
sual(orNew)archat."Ology.SeealsopartI,"Arch;I<..'Ologists:l11cl'r:lCtilioners:inDrinkard,
Mattingly,andMiller,JJl.'tlchmarksill71memulCIII/llre.PartI coversAmcriCLn,British,French,
GcnnanandISr.lcliarchaeolQRiSl"andtheirhislory,perspectives.melhods.aims,andexcava-
tiunsaswellastheinslitutionsinwhichtheywork.
32 Secespe<:iallythccomments 01 A.F.H:liney,thevolume'slmnslator,ontheuse 01
thistcrm(Y.Ah;lroni,n)CArchaeologyof/he1.(11/(/ofIsrael,xiii).
jjYohananAh:lmni,1be /.(mdoftbcl3ible;AHistoricalGc.'OlI,mpbJ'(Inms.A.!'.R;dney;
London:Burns&Q:lles,19(7),whichappt.'aredoriginallyinHebrcwin1962.